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Fans set up makeshift memorial at site of car crash that killed Paul Walker, star of the Fast & Furious movies.

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The timing and nature of actor Paul Walker's death could have serious ramifications for his best-known franchise.(Newslook)

By DAISY NGUYENAssociated PressJustin Pritchard

Sun., Dec. 1, 2013

LOS ANGELES—Fans of Fast & Furious star Paul Walker created a makeshift memorial Sunday in the Los Angeles suburb where a car in which he was riding crashed, killing the actor and a friend.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says speed was a factor in the one-car crash in Valencia, about 50 kilometres northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Deputies found a 2005 red Porsche Carrera GT engulfed in flames when they arrived Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday, fans of Walker, 40, gathered to leave flowers, candles and memorabilia from the action film franchise.

Walker’s publicist, Ame Van Iden, said Sunday that the other person in the car was Roger Rodas, a friend of Walker’s who owned a sports car dealership in Valencia.

Van Iden said the actor was the passenger, as did his Facebook page. The sheriff’s department did not confirm that.

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The Porsche crashed into a light pole and tree and burst into flames. The downed light pole had a speed limit sign of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h).

Paul Walker died when a Porsche Carrera GT he was in crashed and was engulfed in flames. Walker took the Fast & Furious franchise to stardom, starring in all but one of the seven action blockbusters. (The seventh is to be released next summer.) (Filipe Carvalho / REUTERS)

The wreckage of the Porsche Carrera GT in which actor Paul Walker died after it crashed on Hercules St. in Valencia, a Los Angeles suburb. A friend was reportedly driving and police say speed was a factor. (Dan Watson / The Associated Press)

Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Gomez said investigators are working to determine how fast the car was travelling and what caused it to go out of control: whether the driver was distracted or something in the road prompted him to swerve.

Walker and Rodas had attended a fundraiser benefiting victims of the recent typhoon in the Philippines. The event was held by Walker’s Reach Out Worldwide, a charity he founded in 2010 to aid victims of natural disasters.

The fundraiser and toy drive took place at Rodas’ custom car shop, Always Evolving. Attendees at the charity event rushed to the nearby crash scene and tried to put out the flames with fire extinguishers.

Bill Townsend, who attended the event, told AP Radio that Walker appeared very happy at the fundraiser.

“He was smiling at everybody, just tickled that all these people came out to support this charity,” Townsend said. “He was doing what he loved. He was surrounded by friends, surrounded by cars.”

The Fast & Furious star had been on break from shooting the seventh instalment of the Universal Pictures franchise. Production began in September and while much of the film has been shot, it’s incomplete.

Universal has not yet said what it plans to do with Fast & Furious 7, which is currently slated for release next July.

“Your humble spirit was felt from the start,” Ludacris, Walker’s Fast & Furious co-star, said on Twitter. “Wherever you blessed your presence you always left a mark, we were like brothers.”

Another Fast & Furious co-star, Vin Diesel, posted a photograph on Instagram of him and Walker arm in arm with the message: “Brother I will miss you very much. I am absolutely speechless.”

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'The Fast and the Furious' co-stars are remembering franchise star Paul Walker, who died Saturday in a car crash in California.(Newsy)

Walker rode the Fast & Furious franchise to stardom, starring in all but one of the six action blockbusters, beginning with the first film in 2001. The blond-haired, blue-eyed Los Angeles native brought California surfer good looks and an easy charm to the popular street-racing series.

Walker is survived by his 15-year-old daughter.

He stars in the upcoming Hurricane Katrina drama Hours, which Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films is to release Dec. 13. He also stars in Brick Mansions, a remake of the French action film District B13, which Relativity plans to release next year.

The son of a fashion model and a sewer contractor, Walker grew up in a working-class Mormon household in Glendale, Calif. The oldest of five siblings, Walker’s mother began taking him to auditions as a toddler. He was a child model beginning at the age of 2.

Walker has said the early induction to show business wasn’t to start him on a career path, but as a way to help provide for the family.

After a string of TV roles as a child in the ’80s, including small roles on Who’s the Boss and Charles in Charge, Walker made his feature film debut in the 1998 comedy Meet the Deedles. Supporting roles in the films Pleasantville, Varsity Blues and Flags of Our Fathers followed.

His performance in the 2000 thriller The Skulls caught the eye of producer Neal H. Moritz, who cast him in The Fast and the Furious as undercover police officer Brian O’Conner. Adapted from a Vibe magazine article about underground street races, the film became an unexpected hit.

In the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Walker moved to centre stage with Diesel temporarily dropping out. Walker, a self-described “gearhead,” kept his character’s sports car from the film.

Walker starred in other films, including the crime thriller Running Scared, the Antarctic adventure Eight Below and the heist film Takers. Though his stardom didn’t make as much of an impact outside the Fast & Furious series, Walker continually drew praise from his co-stars and directors as a kind-hearted and eager collaborator.

Fast & Furious proved unusually enduring. Released in May, Fast & Furious 6 was the most lucrative of them all, grossing more than $788 million worldwide.

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